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World Class University project winner, Associate Professor Guoxiu Wan... |
Major boost for research into new generation of batteries
Associate Professor Guoxiu Wang from the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) and the School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronics Engineering has won a large World Class University (WCU) project on the “Development of Converging Technology for the Next Generation Secondary Battery”.
Professor Hyo-Jun Ahn, Professor Ki-Won Kim, and Professor Tae-hyun Nam from Gyeongsang National University (GNU), Korea, and Professor Shuichi Miyazaki from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, are joint winners of this WCU project.
Professor Wang, an Australian research Council (ARC) Queen Elizabeth II Fellow, is also an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES).
Supported by a $3.5 million grant from the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Professor Wang will collaborate with scientists at Gyeongsang National University, Korea, and the University of Tsukuba, Japan, to develop new generation batteries as a clean energy source for a wide range of applications. Professor Wang is the Co-ordinator of the Energy Storage Materials Research Program Institute with ISEM.
“Climate change and the global energy crisis urgently demand new renewable energy technology for sustainable development,” Professor Wang said.
“This WCU project aims to address these challenges in accordance with the rapid growth in the IT technology industry, the clean transportation industry, the robotics industry, and the biomedical industry.”
In the past 12 years, Professor Wang, Professor Hua Liu and their colleagues have established a strong research program on advanced battery technology within the ISEM which has attracted multi-million dollar funding from the ARC and from industry.
The Director of ISEM, Professor Shixue Dou, praised the WCU project as an important milestone that will lead to the establishment of close research collaborations with the Korean university.
“The winning of the WCU project clearly proves the outstanding strength and international reputation of our battery research program. It is a true win-win project and will bring benefits for Australian and Korean industry,” Professor Dou said.
Under the umbrella of the WCU program, there will be regular student and staff exchanges between UOW and GNU over the next five years. UOW research students and researchers will have opportunities to do research at GNU which will be financially supported by the WCU grant.
The World Class University project is a Korean government initiative to invite international scholars who possess advanced research capacities to collaborate with Korean faculty members in key growth-generating fields. With the vision to build international collaboration, the WCU project seeks to enhance higher educational and industrial competitiveness in inter-disciplinary fields.